Ventilator for truck bodies



June 15, 1937. T. M. JONES VENTILATOR FOR TRUCK BODIES Filed March 26, 1936 WVE/WOQ 7/140 MJO/VES Patented June 15, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Application March 26,

6 Claims.

(Granted under 1936, Serial No. 70,995

the act of March 3, 1883, as

amended April 30, 1928; 3'70 0. G. 757) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the pay ent to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to a ventilator to be used on truck bodies, and the object of this invention is to provide a ventilator so arranged that it will provide adequate lighting and ventilation to the interior of the truckbody in order-that the loading and unloading may be facilitated and in order that certain commodities, livestock, etc., may have sufficient ventilation while in transit. This ventilator. is an improvement over those now in use, which are either of glass fixed in place, furnishing only lighting without ventilation, or grill or wire mesh which furnish ventilation, but are not all weather, having to be covered over with canvas or other material in rainy weather.

With these objects and other objects which may hereinafter appear, in view, I have devised the particular arrangement of parts hereinafter set forth and more particularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto. a

'Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part hereof, in which- Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a truck body using my invention, with the ventilator closed;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation in sectionviewed from the inside of the truck; I

Fig. 3 is a section of the hinge mechanism joining the shutters of the ventilators;

Fig. 4 is a vertical section along the line 32--32, Figure 2, viewed from the inside of the truck body;

Fig. 5 is a section showing the bottom shutter 3, of the ventilator as it is connected to the guide rod l.

In the illustrated embodiment characterizing this invention A indicates a motor-van having 40 side walls B provided with openings C, each of which is equipped with a collapsible shutter D composed of a series of shutter sections (3) hingedly connected as at (Ill), as clearly shown \in Figs. 1 and 3 of the drawing.

The collapsible shutter D is suspended in opening C from cross piece (3) of the frame defining the opening, the suspension being effected by hinge connections (Hl), as clearly shown in Fig.

4 of the drawing. Immediately to the rear of a each opening C are, mounted a series of vertically disposed laterally spaced guide rods (l) secured at their extremities as at (5) and (6).

To slidably associate the shutter sections (3) 55 with guide rods (1), each rod is provided with slidably mounted guide plates (4) hingedly connected to the lower edges of the lowermost of each pair of shutter sections (3) as clearly shown in Fig. 4., By connecting the shutter sections in this manner, it will sections are raised from the bottom, each pair will be opened to maximum before the succeeding pair starts to open, as shown in Fig'. 4 of the drawing.

The collapsible shutters C are raised, lowered and locked in adjusted position by means of manually operable mechanisms E which are located on the inner side of each wall B, immediately below the openings C, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawing. Mechanism E consists of an operating lever (l3) pivotally mounted as at (IS) in a protecting casing (9). The handle of lever ([3), which extends through the casing has its upper and lower surfaces formed with notches (ll) and (I8) which are adapted to coact with pins (I9), (20) and (2|), which are suitably arranged to secure the lever (l3) in adjusted position as will be understood without further discussion. The free end of lever (I3) is pivotally connected as at (14) to a vertically disposed rod (l2), the upper end of which is secured as at (l5) to a horizontally disposed shutter raising angle iron (1), which is located in underlying relation with respect to the lowermost of the guide members (4), members as at (8), as clearly shown in Fig. 5 of the drawing. 7

Wire mesh 26 is for the dual purpose of keeping the contents of the truck body from interfering with the movements of the ventilator and to keep the contents of the truck body'from falling out when the ventilator is open. Wire mesh 26 is fastened to supports 22, 24 andv 25 as shown in Figures 2 and-4. 23 is a shaped metal strip welded to the inside or outsidev of the shutter as shown in Figures 3 and 5 to render the ventilator weather proof when the ventilator is closed. When strip 23 is welded to the outside of the ventilator it is welded for the top portion only, the lower portion being free to open and when strip 23 is welded to the inside of the ventilator it is welded for the lower portion only, the upper portion being free to open. Strip 23 is welded to the outside along and overlapping hinge ll) when hinge lll moves outward when the ventilator is opened, and is welded to the inside along and overlapping hinge l0 when hinge ll! is held in a vertical plane by the joining of sleeve 4 to guide rod I.

be evident that as the I and secured to said guide Having outlined the structural details of this invention, its operation is as follows:

Assuming the collapsible shutter D to be in its lowered position, closing opening C, then to com- 5 pletely expose the opening, the handle of lever (I3) is depressed, whereupon, through rod (I2) and angle iron (1) the lower shutter section of the lowermost pair of sections is elevated, forcing the hinged connection between the two sections outwardly and upwardly; as the upward movement of the lower shutter section continues, the two sections of the pair are brought into superimposed relation, at right angles to the guide rods, or in other words to their maximum open position. When this position has ,been attained the next pair of shutter sections start to open and this opening movement continues until the several sections forming the collapsible shutter are arranged in overlying relation in the upper portion of opening C. To secure the shutter sections in any desired position, partially or completely, exposing or closing the opening 0, it is merely necessary to engage one of the notches in the handle of the operating lever with the requisite holding pin as will be readily understood without further discussion.

I claim:

1. A collapsible shutter of the character described comprising a shutter supporting member, a plurality of flexibly connected shutter sections suspended from the supporting member, a vertically disposed guide rod, shutter guiding elements slidably mounted on the guide rod and hingedly connected to the bottom edge of the lowermost section of each pair of shutter sections, a

vertically movable shutter lifting device hingedly associated with the lowermost of the shutter sections, whereby upward movement of said device causes each pair of shutter sections to be folded to maximum open position before the succeeding pair starts to open, and operating means in connection with the shutter lifting device.

2. A collapsible shutter of the character described comprising a shutter supporting member,

a plurality of flexibly connected shutter sections hingedly suspended from the supporting member, a vertically disposed guide rod, shutter guiding elements slidably mounted on the guide rod and hingedly connected to the bottom edge of the lowermost section of each pair of shutter sections,

a vertically movable shutter lifting device hingedly associated with the lowermost of the shutter sections, whereby upward movement of said device causes each pair of shutter sections to be folded to maximum open position before the succeeding pair starts to open, operating means in connection with the shutter lifting device and additional means coacting with the last mentioned means for securing the shutter sections in adjusted position.

3. A collapsible shutter of the character described comprising a horizontally disposed shutter supporting member, a plurality of flexibly connected shutter sections hingedly suspended 5 from the supporting member, a plurality of vertically disposed guide rods, shutter guiding elements slidably mounted on the guide rods, said elements being hingedly connected to the bottom edge of the lowermost section of each pair of shutter sections, a vertically movable shutter lifting device hingedly associated with the lowermost of said shutter sections whereby upward movement of said shutter device causes each pair of shutter sections to be folded to maximum open.

position before the succeeding pair starts to open, and manually controlled operating means in connection with said shutter lifting device to effect its vertical actuation.

4. A collapsible shutter of the character described, comprising a horizontally disposed shutter supporting member, a plurality of flexibly connected shutter sections hingedly suspended from the supporting member, a plurality of vertically disposed guide rods, shutter guiding elements slidably mounted on the guide rods, said elements being hingedly connected to the bottom edge of the lowermost section of each pair of shutter sections, a vertically movable shutter operating device hingedly associated with shutter sections through the lowermost guiding elements, whereby upward movement of said shutter device causes each pair of shutter sections tobe folded to maximum open position before the succeeding pair starts to open, manually controlled operating means in, connection with said shutter device to eifect its vertical actuation, and means in connection with the last mentioned means for locking the shutter sections in any adjusted position.

5. A collapsible shutter of the character described, comprising a shutter supporting mem-- ber, a-plurality of flexibly connected shutter sec tions hingedly suspended from the supporting member, a plurality of vertically disposed, laterally spaced guide rods, shutter guiding elements, slidably mounted on the guide rods, means hingedly connecting the guiding elements to the bottom edge of the lowermost section of each pair of shutter sections, a vertically movable shutter lifting device hingedly connected to the shutter sections through the lowermost guiding elements, whereby upward movement of said lifting device causes each pair of shutter sections to be folded to maximum open position before the succeeding pair starts to open, a pivotally connected operating lever, means connecting said lever with the shutter lifting device and additional means in connection with said lever to lock the latter in predetermined positions.

6. A ventilating mechanism for vehicles and the like, comprising a frame defining a ventilating opening, and including an upper cross-piece, a plurality of flexibly connected shutter sections adapted to close said opening, said shutter sections being hingedly suspended from said cross piece, a plurality of guide rods situated immediately to the rear of the shutter sections, shutter guiding elements slidably mounted on the rods, said elements being hingedly connected to the bottom edge of the lowermost section of each pair of shutter sections, a horizontally disposed vertically movable shutter lifting device hingedly connected with the lowermost of the shutter sections through the guiding elements, whereby upward movement of said device causes each pair of shutter sections to be folded to maximum open position before the succeeding pair starts to open, an operating mechanism in connection with the lifting device and means in connection with the operating mechanism for securing the shutter sections in adjusted position.

THAD M. JONES. 

